Jeremy Corbyn Brexit row: Julia Hartley-Brewer suggests we need a Government of National Unity

Julia Hartley-Brewer has suggested Britain should have a World War Two-style coalition government, after it emerged that Jeremy Corbyn had held a clandestine meeting with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Corbyn met Barnier on Monday, in a meeting which has just come to light. A memo circulated to European nations suggested that he would be open to keeping Britain in the customs union after Brexit, and to the continuing influence of the European Court of Justice in UK law.

The meeting has left Corbyn open to accusations of undermining Theresa May, but our morning host believes the Prime Minister should have brought Labour into the fold much earlier, and created a government of national unity, to ensure a broad range of political views are represented in the Brexit negotiating process and deter Labour from undermining the official policy.

This view was echoed by Brendan Chilton, general secretary of pro-Brexit group Labour Leave, who told Julia "Theresa May should have called the other parties in [at the start of the negotiating process] and said 'It's not a party political issue, it's a national issue.'"

The debate was also joined by Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, previously a member of the foreign affairs select committee, as well as former Tory lawmaker Jerry Hayes.

Blunt condemned Corbyn's intervention in the Brexit process, saying "it's as though they are trying to pick apart the British position from behind."